Delhi rape: 2nd accused Pradeep sent to police custody

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Pradeep, the second accused in the Gudiya rape case was sent to four-day police custody by a Delhi court on Tuesday. The police have claimed that Pradeep had confessed to his crime and expressed regret that he has "committed a big mistake". An illiterate, Pradeep belongs to Ahiyapur in Sheikhupura district of Bihar. He befriended Manoj Kumar, the main accused, on a train while both were on way to Bihar from Delhi earlier this year. Earlier, disturbing details emerged on the horrendous rape of five-year-old ‘Gudiya’, the savagery which has rekindled anger on the lack of safety for women in Delhi and elsewhere in the country. One of the two arrested accused, 22-year-old Manoj, in whose rented room he along with his friend Pradeep, 19, brutalised the girl child has reportedly revealed chilling details about the crime to the investigators. Manoj said that he and Pradeep were on a drinking spree and watched porn on a mobile phone on April 15 evening at his rented room in Gandhinagar. Later Pradeep expressed a strong desire to have intercourse; they then planned to get a prostitute but couldn’t do so as they had little money. On seeing five-year-old ‘Gudiya’ playing nearby, they offered her chocolate and lured her into the room. As per a report, Tuesday, Manoj has claimed that he did not rape the child and only Pradeep was involved in the act. However, his version seems highly unlikely – the police are also probing the presence of a third accused in the case. The accused later strangled the girl and thinking her as dead, they fled to Bihar. Manoj Kumar was arrested Friday from his in-laws house in Bihar`s Muzaffarpur area, while Pradeep was arrested from his maternal uncle`s house in Lakhisarai yesterday. Manoj is lodged in Tihar Jail. Pradeep would be produced before a court today and would be, expectedly, sent to the same jail.